Big Ten/ACC Challenge Schedule Released

This afternoon, the Big Ten and ACC released the schedule for their annual challenge series, which has been condensed to two days from three, which means Wake Forest gets to welcome Nebraska to the event on Wednesday night instead of the relative anonymity of one of the quieter Monday nights in the regular season slate.

The biggest surprise to me is that North Carolina hosts Wisconsin to close the event. It seemed automatic that the Tar Heels would face of Ohio State, which would have been a potential early season blockbuster/NBA talent evaluator get-together. However, the good folks over at gopherhole.com figured out a few weeks ago that the Tar Heels and Buckeyes looked likely to play at home, with the Badgers liable to get on a plane.

So, Duke gets to visit Columbus to wrap up the first night of action, which features many matchups that could be surprisingly compelling (Miami at Purdue, Michigan at Virginia, Clemson at Iowa, in particular).

Virginia Tech's trip to Minnesota and Michigan State's home contest against Florida State, the Spartans' third early season game against an ACC power, are the most appetizing non-Wisconsin-UNC games on the final night.

Here's the complete list of pairings.

Nov. 29
Miami at Purdue
Northwestern at Georgia Tech
Illinois at Maryland
Michigan at Virginia
Clemson at Iowa
Duke at Ohio State

Nov. 30
Indiana at N.C. State
Penn State at Boston College
Florida State at Michigan State
Virginia Tech at Minnesota
Wake Forest at Nebraska
Wisconsin at North Carolina

You can also find this information on the 2011 Conference Challenges Page.

Enjoy this post? Follow Blogging the Bracket on Twitter and Like the site on Facebook.